Prefetching places

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a method includes automatically determining, in response to user input that includes an indication that the user is generating social-network content, a location of the user. The social network has a number of nodes and a number of edges connecting the nodes, and at least one node corresponds to the user. The method includes sending, automatically and without requiring further user input, the location from a client computing device of the user to an external server computing device and receiving from the server an identification of one or more places corresponding to the location.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to location-based services.

BACKGROUND

A social-networking system, which may include a social-networkingwebsite, may enable its users (such as persons or organizations) tointeract with it and with each other through it. The social-networkingsystem may, with input from a user, create and store in thesocial-networking system a user profile associated with the user. Theuser profile may include demographic information, communication-channelinformation, and information on personal interests of the user. Thesocial-networking system may also, with input from a user, create andstore a record of relationships of the user with other users of thesocial-networking system, as well as provide services (e.g., wall posts,photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, or advertisements)to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social-networking system may send over one or more networks contentor messages related to its services to a mobile or other computingdevice of a user. A user may also install software applications on amobile or other computing device of the user for accessing a userprofile of the user and other data within the social-networking system.The social-networking system may generate a personalized set of contentobjects to display to a user, such as a newsfeed of aggregated storiesof other users connected to the user.

A mobile computing device—such as a smartphone, tablet computer, orlaptop computer—may include functionality for determining its location,direction, or orientation, such as a GPS receiver, compass, gyroscope,or accelerometer. Such a device may also include functionality forwireless communication, such as BLUETOOTH communication, near-fieldcommunication (NFC), or infrared (IR) communication or communicationwith a wireless local area networks (WLANs) or cellular-telephonenetwork. Such a device may also include one or more cameras, scanners,touchscreens, microphones, or speakers. Mobile computing devices mayalso execute software applications, such as games, web browsers, orsocial-networking applications. With social-networking applications,users may connect, communicate, and share information with other usersin their social networks.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

Users of a social network may check-in to a place associated with alocation that the user is, was, or will be at. Determining one or moreplaces associated with a location may require either manual user input,which requires the user to accurately identify a place corresponding tothe location, or takes time and computational resources if doneautomatically. When a user indicates an intent to generate content for asocial network, such as by accessing a composer, the client device withwhich the user is interacting may determine the user's location. Theclient device may send the location to one or more external computers,such as a server, that contain a mapping of locations to places, andreceive in response an identification of one or more placescorresponding to the location. The places may be ranked. If and when theuser attempts to generate content based on a place associated with theuser, a list of possible or suggested places corresponding to thelocation is already available for presentation to the user.

The embodiments disclosed above are only examples, and the scope of thisdisclosure is not limited to them. Particular embodiments may includeall, some, or none of the components, elements, features, functions,operations, or steps of the embodiments disclosed above.

Embodiments according to the invention are in particular disclosed inthe attached claims directed to a method, a storage medium, a system anda computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claimcategory, e.g. method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g.system, as well. The dependencies or references back in the attachedclaims are chosen for formal reasons only. However any subject matterresulting from a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (inparticular multiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that anycombination of claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can beclaimed regardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims.The subject-matter which can be claimed comprises not only thecombinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also anyother combination of features in the claims, wherein each featurementioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature orcombination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of theembodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed ina separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment orfeature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of theattached claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment associated with asocial-networking system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example social graph.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for suggesting one or more usersfor a user of a social network to associate with a check-in.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method for suggesting one or more usersfor a user of a social network to associate with a check-in.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method for providing a user the ability toassociate himself with a check-in displayed to the user.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method for providing a user with agraphical indicator indicating that a high-quality suggestion forcontent for the user to generate in connection with a social network isbeing or has been determined.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method for automatically generating acheck-in for a user of a social network.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method for prefetching location and placedata for a user of client device.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method for providing offline access tolocation and place data to a user of a client.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 associated with asocial-networking system. Network environment 100 includes a clientsystem 130, a social-networking system 160, and a third-party system 170connected to each other by a network 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates aparticular arrangement of client system 130, social-networking system160, third-party system 170, and network 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable arrangement of client system 130,social-networking system 160, third-party system 170, and network 110.As an example and not by way of limitation, two or more of client system130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system 170 may beconnected to each other directly, bypassing network 110. As anotherexample, two or more of client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 may be physically or logically co-locatedwith each other in whole or in part. Moreover, although FIG. 1illustrates a particular number of client systems 130, social-networkingsystems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable number of client systems 130,social-networking systems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks110. As an example and not by way of limitation, network environment 100may include multiple client system 130, social-networking systems 160,third-party systems 170, and networks 110.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 110. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 110 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 110 may include one or more networks110.

Links 150 may connect client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 to communication network 110 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 150. Inparticular embodiments, one or more links 150 include one or morewireline (such as for example Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data OverCable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)), wireless (such as forexample Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), or optical (such as for example Synchronous Optical Network(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particularembodiments, one or more links 150 each include an ad hoc network, anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, aportion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a cellulartechnology-based network, a satellite communications technology-basednetwork, another link 150, or a combination of two or more such links150. Links 150 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 100. One or more first links 150 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 150.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may be an electronic deviceincluding hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientsystem 130. As an example and not by way of limitation, a client system130 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer, notebookor laptop computer, netbook, a tablet computer, e-book reader, GPSdevice, camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld electronicdevice, cellular telephone, smartphone, other suitable electronicdevice, or any suitable combination thereof. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable client systems 130. A client system 130 mayenable a network user at client system 130 to access network 110. Aclient system 130 may enable its user to communicate with other users atother client systems 130.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include a web browser132, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLAFIREFOX, and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or otherextensions, such as TOOLBAR or YAHOO TOOLBAR. A user at client system130 may enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other addressdirecting the web browser 132 to a particular server (such as server162, or a server associated with a third-party system 170), and the webbrowser 132 may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requestand communicate the HTTP request to server. The server may accept theHTTP request and communicate to client system 130 one or more Hyper TextMarkup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTP request. Clientsystem 130 may render a webpage based on the HTML files from the serverfor presentation to the user. This disclosure contemplates any suitablewebpage files. As an example and not by way of limitation, webpages mayrender from HTML files, Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML)files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML) files, according toparticular needs. Such pages may also execute scripts such as, forexample and without limitation, those written in JAVASCRIPT, JAVA,MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT, combinations of markup language and scripts suchas AJAX (Asynchronous JAVASCRIPT and XML), and the like. Herein,reference to a webpage encompasses one or more corresponding webpagefiles (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and vice versa,where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Social-networking system 160 may generate, store, receive, andsend social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data,concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable datarelated to the online social network. Social-networking system 160 maybe accessed by the other components of network environment 100 eitherdirectly or via network 110. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more servers 162. Eachserver 162 may be a unitary server or a distributed server spanningmultiple computers or multiple datacenters. Servers 162 may be ofvarious types, such as, for example and without limitation, web server,news server, mail server, message server, advertising server, fileserver, application server, exchange server, database server, proxyserver, another server suitable for performing functions or processesdescribed herein, or any combination thereof. In particular embodiments,each server 162 may include hardware, software, or embedded logiccomponents or a combination of two or more such components for carryingout the appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by server162. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may includeone or more data stores 164. Data stores 164 may be used to storevarious types of information. In particular embodiments, the informationstored in data stores 164 may be organized according to specific datastructures. In particular embodiments, each data store 164 may be arelational, columnar, correlation, or other suitable database. Althoughthis disclosure describes or illustrates particular types of databases,this disclosure contemplates any suitable types of databases. Particularembodiments may provide interfaces that enable a client system 130, asocial-networking system 160, or a third-party system 170 to manage,retrieve, modify, add, or delete, the information stored in data store164.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may store one ormore social graphs in one or more data stores 164. In particularembodiments, a social graph may include multiple nodes—which may includemultiple user nodes (each corresponding to a particular user) ormultiple concept nodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—andmultiple edges connecting the nodes. Social-networking system 160 mayprovide users of the online social network the ability to communicateand interact with other users. In particular embodiments, users may jointhe online social network via social-networking system 160 and then addconnections (e.g., relationships) to a number of other users ofsocial-networking system 160 whom they want to be connected to. Herein,the term “friend” may refer to any other user of social-networkingsystem 160 with whom a user has formed a connection, association, orrelationship via social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provideusers with the ability to take actions on various types of items orobjects, supported by social-networking system 160. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the items and objects may include groups orsocial networks to which users of social-networking system 160 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use, transactions that allowusers to buy or sell items via the service, interactions withadvertisements that a user may perform, or other suitable items orobjects. A user may interact with anything that is capable of beingrepresented in social-networking system 160 or by an external system ofthird-party system 170, which is separate from social-networking system160 and coupled to social-networking system 160 via a network 110.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be capableof linking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may enable users to interactwith each other as well as receive content from third-party systems 170or other entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 170 may beoperated by a different entity from an entity operatingsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, however,social-networking system 160 and third-party systems 170 may operate inconjunction with each other to provide social-networking services tousers of social-networking system 160 or third-party systems 170. Inthis sense, social-networking system 160 may provide a platform, orbackbone, which other systems, such as third-party systems 170, may useto provide social-networking services and functionality to users acrossthe Internet.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to a client system 130. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith social-networking system 160. User-generated content may includeanything a user can add, upload, send, or “post” to social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, a usercommunicates posts to social-networking system 160 from a client system130. Posts may include data such as status updates or other textualdata, location information, photos, videos, links, music or othersimilar data or media. Content may also be added to social-networkingsystem 160 by a third-party through a “communication channel,” such as anewsfeed or stream.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may include avariety of servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and datastores. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayinclude one or more of the following: a web server, action logger,API-request server, relevance-and-ranking engine, content-objectclassifier, notification controller, action log,third-party-content-object-exposure log, inference module,authorization/privacy server, search module, advertisement-targetingmodule, user-interface module, user-profile store, connection store,third-party content store, or location store. Social-networking system160 may also include suitable components such as network interfaces,security mechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitable components,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more user-profile storesfor storing user profiles. A user profile may include, for example,biographic information, demographic information, behavioral information,social information, or other types of descriptive information, such aswork experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences, interests,affinities, or location. Interest information may include interestsrelated to one or more categories. Categories may be general orspecific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user “likes”an article about a brand of shoes the category may be the brand, or thegeneral category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connection store may beused for storing connection information about users. The connectioninformation may indicate users who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or are inany way related or share common attributes. The connection informationmay also include user-defined connections between different users andcontent (both internal and external). A web server may be used forlinking social-networking system 160 to one or more client systems 130or one or more third-party system 170 via network 110. The web servermay include a mail server or other messaging functionality for receivingand routing messages between social-networking system 160 and one ormore client systems 130. An API-request server may allow a third-partysystem 170 to access information from social-networking system 160 bycalling one or more APIs. An action logger may be used to receivecommunications from a web server about a user's actions on or offsocial-networking system 160. In conjunction with the action log, athird-party-content-object log may be maintained of user exposures tothird-party-content objects. A notification controller may provideinformation regarding content objects to a client system 130.Information may be pushed to a client system 130 as notifications, orinformation may be pulled from client system 130 responsive to a requestreceived from client system 130. Authorization servers may be used toenforce one or more privacy settings of the users of social-networkingsystem 160. A privacy setting of a user determines how particularinformation associated with a user can be shared. The authorizationserver may allow users to opt in to or opt out of having their actionslogged by social-networking system 160 or shared with other systems(e.g., third-party system 170), such as, for example, by settingappropriate privacy settings. Third-party-content-object stores may beused to store content objects received from third parties, such as athird-party system 170. Location stores may be used for storing locationinformation received from client systems 130 associated with users.Advertisement-pricing modules may combine social information, thecurrent time, location information, or other suitable information toprovide relevant advertisements, in the form of notifications, to auser.

FIG. 2 illustrates example social graph 200. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store one or more social graphs 200 inone or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph 200 mayinclude multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes 202 ormultiple concept nodes 204—and multiple edges 206 connecting the nodes.Example social graph 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown, for didacticpurposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation. In particularembodiments, a social-networking system 160, client system 130, orthird-party system 170 may access social graph 200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges ofsocial graph 200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to a user ofsocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g.,an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g.,of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or oversocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, when a userregisters for an account with social-networking system 160,social-networking system 160 may create a user node 202 corresponding tothe user, and store the user node 202 in one or more data stores. Usersand user nodes 202 described herein may, where appropriate, refer toregistered users and user nodes 202 associated with registered users. Inaddition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered withsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, a user node 202may be associated with information provided by a user or informationgathered by various systems, including social-networking system 160. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide his or hername, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, maritalstatus, family status, employment, education background, preferences,interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments,a user node 202 may be associated with one or more data objectscorresponding to information associated with a user. In particularembodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with social-network system 160 or a third-partywebsite associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as,for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within social-networking system 160 or on an external server,such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (suchas, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea,photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory;another suitable concept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node204 may be associated with information of a concept provided by a useror information gathered by various systems, including social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 204 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 200 may represent orbe represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profilepage”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible tosocial-networking system 160. Profile pages may also be hosted onthird-party websites associated with a third-party server 170. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a profile page corresponding to aparticular external webpage may be the particular external webpage andthe profile page may correspond to a particular concept node 204.Profile pages may be viewable by all or a selected subset of otherusers. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user node 202 mayhave a corresponding user-profile page in which the corresponding usermay add content, make declarations, or otherwise express himself orherself. As another example and not by way of limitation, a concept node204 may have a corresponding concept-profile page in which one or moreusers may add content, make declarations, or express themselves,particularly in relation to the concept corresponding to concept node204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system 170. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object(which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHPcodes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by wayof limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon suchas “like,” “check-in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “check-in”), causing a clientsystem 130 to send to social-networking system 160 a message indicatingthe user's action. In response to the message, social-networking system160 may create an edge (e.g., a check-in-type edge) between a user node202 corresponding to the user and a concept node 204 corresponding tothe third-party webpage or resource and store edge 206 in one or moredata stores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 206. An edge 206 connectinga pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes.In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may include or represent one ormore data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationshipbetween a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the firstuser. In response to this indication, social-networking system 160 maysend a “friend request” to the second user. If the second user confirmsthe “friend request,” social-networking system 160 may create an edge206 connecting the first user's user node 202 to the second user's usernode 202 in social graph 200 and store edge 206 as social-graphinformation in one or more of data stores 164. In the example of FIG. 2,social graph 200 includes an edge 206 indicating a friend relationbetween user nodes 202 of user “A” and user “B” and an edge indicating afriend relation between user nodes 202 of user “C” and user “B.”Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 206with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 202, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent a friendship, family relationship,business or employment relationship, fan relationship (including, e.g.,liking, etc.), follower relationship, visitor relationship (including,e.g., accessing, viewing, checking-in, sharing, etc.), subscriberrelationship, superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocalrelationship, non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type ofrelationship, or two or more such relationships. Moreover, although thisdisclosure generally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosurealso describes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, referencesto users or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer tothe nodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected insocial graph 200 by one or more edges 206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 206 between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 may represent a particular action or activity performedby a user associated with user node 202 toward a concept associated witha concept node 204. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 2, a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,”“listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of whichmay correspond to a edge type or subtype. A concept-profile pagecorresponding to a concept node 204 may include, for example, aselectable “check-in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check-in”icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a userclicks these icons, social-networking system 160 may create a “favorite”edge or a “check-in” edge in response to a user's action correspondingto a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song (“Imagine”) using aparticular application (SPOTIFY, which is an online music application).In this case, social-networking system 160 may create a “listened” edge206 and a “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between user nodes 202corresponding to the user and concept nodes 204 corresponding to thesong and application to indicate that the user listened to the song andused the application. Moreover, social-networking system 160 may createa “played” edge 206 (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between concept nodes 204corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that theparticular song was played by the particular application. In this case,“played” edge 206 corresponds to an action performed by an externalapplication (SPOTIFY) on an external audio file (the song “Imagine”).Although this disclosure describes particular edges 206 with particularattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes 204. Moreover,although this disclosure describes edges between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 representing a single relationship, this disclosurecontemplates edges between a user node 202 and a concept node 204representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent both that a user likes and hasused at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 206 mayrepresent each type of relationship (or multiples of a singlerelationship) between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 (asillustrated in FIG. 2 between user node 202 for user “E” and conceptnode 204 for “SPOTIFY”).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may create anedge 206 between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 in social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client system 130) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client system 130 to send to social-networking system 160 amessage indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, social-networkingsystem 160 may create an edge 206 between user node 202 associated withthe user and concept node 204, as illustrated by “like” edge 206 betweenthe user and concept node 204. As another example, when a user checks into place, an edge may be created between the node representing the place(or an event or structure at the place) and the node representing theuser. The edge may include any suitable information, such as other usersthat are with the first user or a time stamp associated with thecheck-in. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 maystore an edge 206 in one or more data stores. In particular embodiments,an edge 206 may be automatically formed by social-networking system 160in response to a particular user action. As an example and not by way oflimitation, if a first user uploads a picture, watches a movie, orlistens to a song, an edge 206 may be formed between user node 202corresponding to the first user and concept nodes 204 corresponding tothose concepts. Although this disclosure describes forming particularedges 206 in particular manners, this disclosure contemplates formingany suitable edges 206 in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, an social-network content displayed to a userof a social network may be text (which may be HTML-linked), one or moreimages (which may be HTML-linked), one or more videos, audio, one ormore ADOBE FLASH files, a suitable combination of these, or any othersuitable content in any suitable digital format presented on one or moreweb pages, in one or more e-mails, or in connection with search resultsrequested by a user. In addition or as an alternative, an social-networkcontent may be one or more stories (e.g., a news-feed or ticker item onsocial-networking system 160). A story may be a social action by a user(such as “liking” a page, “liking” or commenting on a post on a page,RSVPing to an event associated with a page, voting on a question postedon a page, checking in to a place, using an application or playing agame, or “liking” or sharing a website). A story may be generated fromstories in users' news feeds and displayed in specific areas withindisplays of users' web browsers when viewing a web page associated withsocial-networking system 160. A user may interact with social-networkcontent in any suitable manner. The user may click or otherwise selectthe content

Social-network content may include social-networking-systemfunctionality that a user may interact with. For example, content mayenable a user to “like” or otherwise endorse the content by selecting anicon or link associated with endorsement. Similarly, a user may sharethe content with another user (e.g., through social-networking system160) or RSVP (e.g., through social-networking system 160) to an eventassociated with the content. In addition or as an alternative, contentmay include social-networking-system context directed to the user. Forexample, content may display information about a friend of the userwithin social-networking system 160 who has taken an action associatedwith the subject matter of the content.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may determinethe social-graph affinity (which may be referred to herein as“affinity”) of various social-graph entities for each other. Affinitymay represent the strength of a relationship or level of interestbetween particular objects associated with the online social network,such as users, concepts, content, actions, advertisements, other objectsassociated with the online social network, or any suitable combinationthereof. Affinity may also be determined with respect to objectsassociated with third-party systems 170 or other suitable systems. Anoverall affinity for a social-graph entity for each user, subjectmatter, or type of content may be established. The overall affinity maychange based on continued monitoring of the actions or relationshipsassociated with the social-graph entity. Although this disclosuredescribes determining particular affinities in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates determining any suitable affinities in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may measure orquantify social-graph affinity using an affinity coefficient (which maybe referred to herein as “coefficient”). The coefficient may representor quantify the strength of a relationship between particular objectsassociated with the online social network. The coefficient may alsorepresent a probability or function that measures a predictedprobability that a user will perform a particular action based on theuser's interest in the action. In this way, a user's future actions maybe predicted based on the user's prior actions, where the coefficientmay be calculated at least in part a the history of the user's actions.Coefficients may be used to predict any number of actions, which may bewithin or outside of the online social network. As an example and not byway of limitation, these actions may include various types ofcommunications, such as sending messages, posting content, or commentingon content; various types of a observation actions, such as accessing orviewing profile pages, media, or other suitable content; various typesof coincidence information about two or more social-graph entities, suchas being in the same group, tagged in the same photograph, checked-in atthe same location, or attending the same event; or other suitableactions. Although this disclosure describes measuring affinity in aparticular manner, this disclosure contemplates measuring affinity inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may use avariety of factors to calculate a coefficient. These factors mayinclude, for example, user actions, types of relationships betweenobjects, location information, other suitable factors, or anycombination thereof. In particular embodiments, different factors may beweighted differently when calculating the coefficient. The weights foreach factor may be static or the weights may change according to, forexample, the user, the type of relationship, the type of action, theuser's location, and so forth. Ratings for the factors may be combinedaccording to their weights to determine an overall coefficient for theuser. As an example and not by way of limitation, particular useractions may be assigned both a rating and a weight while a relationshipassociated with the particular user action is assigned a rating and acorrelating weight (e.g., so the weights total 100%). To calculate thecoefficient of a user towards a particular object, the rating assignedto the user's actions may comprise, for example, 60% of the overallcoefficient, while the relationship between the user and the object maycomprise 40% of the overall coefficient. In particular embodiments, thesocial-networking system 160 may consider a variety of variables whendetermining weights for various factors used to calculate a coefficient,such as, for example, the time since information was accessed, decayfactors, frequency of access, relationship to information orrelationship to the object about which information was accessed,relationship to social-graph entities connected to the object, short- orlong-term averages of user actions, user feedback, other suitablevariables, or any combination thereof. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a coefficient may include a decay factor that causes thestrength of the signal provided by particular actions to decay withtime, such that more recent actions are more relevant when calculatingthe coefficient. The ratings and weights may be continuously updatedbased on continued tracking of the actions upon which the coefficient isbased. Any type of process or algorithm may be employed for assigning,combining, averaging, and so forth the ratings for each factor and theweights assigned to the factors. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may determine coefficients usingmachine-learning algorithms trained on historical actions and past userresponses, or data farmed from users by exposing them to various optionsand measuring responses. Although this disclosure describes calculatingcoefficients in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplatescalculating coefficients in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on a user's actions. Social-networking system 160 maymonitor such actions on the online social network, on a third-partysystem 170, on other suitable systems, or any combination thereof. Anysuitable type of user actions may be tracked or monitored. Typical useractions include viewing profile pages, creating or posting content,interacting with content, tagging or being tagged in images, joininggroups, listing and confirming attendance at events, checking-in atlocations, liking particular pages, creating pages, and performing othertasks that facilitate social action. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient based on theuser's actions with particular types of content. The content may beassociated with the online social network, a third-party system 170, oranother suitable system. The content may include users, profile pages,posts, news stories, headlines, instant messages, chat roomconversations, emails, advertisements, pictures, video, music, othersuitable objects, or any combination thereof. Social-networking system160 may analyze a user's actions to determine whether one or more of theactions indicate an affinity for subject matter, content, other users,and so forth. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user maymake frequently posts content related to “coffee” or variants thereof,social-networking system 160 may determine the user has a highcoefficient with respect to the concept “coffee”. Particular actions ortypes of actions may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating thanother actions, which may affect the overall calculated coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, if a first user emails a seconduser, the weight or the rating for the action may be higher than if thefirst user simply views the user-profile page for the second user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on the type of relationship between particularobjects. Referencing the social graph 200, social-networking system 160may analyze the number and/or type of edges 206 connecting particularuser nodes 202 and concept nodes 204 when calculating a coefficient. Asan example and not by way of limitation, user nodes 202 that areconnected by a spouse-type edge (representing that the two users aremarried) may be assigned a higher coefficient than a user nodes 202 thatare connected by a friend-type edge. In other words, depending upon theweights assigned to the actions and relationships for the particularuser, the overall affinity may be determined to be higher for contentabout the user's spouse than for content about the user's friend. Inparticular embodiments, the relationships a user has with another objectmay affect the weights and/or the ratings of the user's actions withrespect to calculating the coefficient for that object. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, if a user is tagged in first photo, butmerely likes a second photo, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient with respect to the first photothan the second photo because having a tagged-in-type relationship withcontent may be assigned a higher weight and/or rating than having alike-type relationship with content. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may calculate a coefficient for a firstuser based on the relationship one or more second users have with aparticular object. In other words, the connections and coefficientsother users have with an object may affect the first user's coefficientfor the object. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a firstuser is connected to or has a high coefficient for one or more secondusers, and those second users are connected to or have a highcoefficient for a particular object, social-networking system 160 maydetermine that the first user should also have a relatively highcoefficient for the particular object. In particular embodiments, thecoefficient may be based on the degree of separation between particularobjects. The lower coefficient may represent the decreasing likelihoodthat the first user will share an interest in content objects of theuser that is indirectly connected to the first user in the social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, social-graph entitiesthat are closer in the social graph 200 (i.e., fewer degrees ofseparation) may have a higher coefficient than entities that are furtherapart in the social graph 200.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient based on location information. Objects that aregeographically closer to each other may be considered to be more relatedor of more interest to each other than more distant objects. Inparticular embodiments, the coefficient of a user towards a particularobject may be based on the proximity of the object's location to acurrent location associated with the user (or the location of a clientsystem 130 of the user). A first user may be more interested in otherusers or concepts that are closer to the first user. As an example andnot by way of limitation, if a user is one mile from an airport and twomiles from a gas station, social-networking system 160 may determinethat the user has a higher coefficient for the airport than the gasstation based on the proximity of the airport to the user.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may performparticular actions with respect to a user based on coefficientinformation. Coefficients may be used to predict whether a user willperform a particular action based on the user's interest in the action.A coefficient may be used when generating or presenting any type ofobjects to a user, such as advertisements, search results, news stories,media, messages, notifications, or other suitable objects. Thecoefficient may also be utilized to rank and order such objects, asappropriate. In this way, social-networking system 160 may provideinformation that is relevant to user's interests and currentcircumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find suchinformation of interest. In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may generate content based on coefficient information.Content objects may be provided or selected based on coefficientsspecific to a user. As an example and not by way of limitation, thecoefficient may be used to generate media for the user, where the usermay be presented with media for which the user has a high overallcoefficient with respect to the media object. As another example and notby way of limitation, the coefficient may be used to generateadvertisements for the user, where the user may be presented withadvertisements for which the user has a high overall coefficient withrespect to the advertised object. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may generate search results based oncoefficient information. Search results for a particular user may bescored or ranked based on the coefficient associated with the searchresults with respect to the querying user. As an example and not by wayof limitation, search results corresponding to objects with highercoefficients may be ranked higher on a search-results page than resultscorresponding to objects having lower coefficients.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may calculate acoefficient in response to a request for a coefficient from a particularsystem or process. To predict the likely actions a user may take (or maybe the subject of) in a given situation, any process may request acalculated coefficient for a user. The request may also include a set ofweights to use for various factors used to calculate the coefficient.This request may come from a process running on the online socialnetwork, from a third-party system 170 (e.g., via an API or othercommunication channel), or from another suitable system. In response tothe request, social-networking system 160 may calculate the coefficient(or access the coefficient information if it has previously beencalculated and stored). In particular embodiments, social-networkingsystem 160 may measure an affinity with respect to a particular process.Different processes (both internal and external to the online socialnetwork) may request a coefficient for a particular object or set ofobjects. Social-networking system 160 may provide a measure of affinitythat is relevant to the particular process that requested the measure ofaffinity. In this way, each process receives a measure of affinity thatis tailored for the different context in which the process will use themeasure of affinity.

In connection with social-graph affinity and affinity coefficients,particular embodiments may utilize one or more systems, components,elements, functions, methods, operations, or steps disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/503,093, filed 11 Aug. 2006, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/977,027, filed 22 Dec. 2010, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/978,265, filed 23 Dec. 2010, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/632,869, filed 1 Oct. 2012, each of which isincorporated by reference.

In particular embodiments, one or more of the content objects of theonline social network may be associated with a privacy setting. Theprivacy settings (or “access settings”) for an object may be stored inany suitable manner, such as, for example, in association with theobject, in an index on an authorization server, in another suitablemanner, or any combination thereof. A privacy setting of an object mayspecify how the object (or particular information associated with anobject) can be accessed (e.g., viewed or shared) using the online socialnetwork. Where the privacy settings for an object allow a particularuser to access that object, the object may be described as being“visible” with respect to that user. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user of the online social network may specify privacysettings for a user-profile page identify a set of users that may accessthe work experience information on the user-profile page, thus excludingother users from accessing the information. In particular embodiments,the privacy settings may specify a “blocked list” of users that shouldnot be allowed to access certain information associated with the object.In other words, the blocked list may specify one or more users orentities for which an object is not visible. As an example and not byway of limitation, a user may specify a set of users that may not accessphotos albums associated with the user, thus excluding those users fromaccessing the photo albums (while also possibly allowing certain usersnot within the set of users to access the photo albums). In particularembodiments, privacy settings may be associated with particularsocial-graph elements. Privacy settings of a social-graph element, suchas a node or an edge, may specify how the social-graph element,information associated with the social-graph element, or content objectsassociated with the social-graph element can be accessed using theonline social network. As an example and not by way of limitation, aparticular concept node 204 corresponding to a particular photo may havea privacy setting specifying that the photo may only be accessed byusers tagged in the photo and their friends. In particular embodiments,privacy settings may allow users to opt in or opt out of having theiractions logged by social-networking system 160 or shared with othersystems (e.g., third-party system 170). In particular embodiments, theprivacy settings associated with an object may specify any suitablegranularity of permitted access or denial of access. As an example andnot by way of limitation, access or denial of access may be specifiedfor particular users (e.g., only me, my roommates, and my boss), userswithin a particular degrees-of-separation (e.g., friends, orfriends-of-friends), user groups (e.g., the gaming club, my family),user networks (e.g., employees of particular employers, students oralumni of particular university), all users (“public”), no users(“private”), users of third-party systems 170, particular applications(e.g., third-party applications, external websites), other suitableusers or entities, or any combination thereof. Although this disclosuredescribes using particular privacy settings in a particular manner, thisdisclosure contemplates using any suitable privacy settings in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, one or more servers 162 may beauthorization/privacy servers for enforcing privacy settings. Inresponse to a request from a user (or other entity) for a particularobject stored in a data store 164, social-networking system 160 may senda request to the data store 164 for the object. The request may identifythe user associated with the request and may only be sent to the user(or a client system 130 of the user) if the authorization serverdetermines that the user is authorized to access the object based on theprivacy settings associated with the object. If the requesting user isnot authorized to access the object, the authorization server mayprevent the requested object from being retrieved from the data store164, or may prevent the requested object from be sent to the user. Inthe search query context, an object may only be generated as a searchresult if the querying user is authorized to access the object. In otherwords, the object must have a visibility that is visible to the queryinguser. If the object has a visibility that is not visible to the user,the object may be excluded from the search results. Although thisdisclosure describes enforcing privacy settings in a particular manner,this disclosure contemplates enforcing privacy settings in any suitablemanner.

A user may use a computing device to check-in to a place. As usedherein, a “check-in” includes any suitable indication or identificationthat a user was, is, or will be at a place. A user may create a check-inby any suitable method. For example, when creating a check-in that isassociated with a social network, a user may use a composer to generatecontent, including check-in content. A user may also edit, add to, ordelete previously created check-ins. When creating a check-in, a usermay associate the check-in with other content, or vice versa. Forexample, a user may describe an activity and associate a check-in withthe described activity. For example, a user of a social network who isvisiting the California Academy of Sciences may create a post such as“Science is awesome!” and associate that post with a check-in to theCalifornia Academy of Sciences. In particular embodiments, a user mayassociate one or more other users with the check-in, for example toindicate that the other users are, were, or will be at the checked-inplace with the user. Check-ins may describe any suitable location and/orplace information, such as the “California Academy of Sciences in SanFrancisco, Calif., U.S.A.” As indicated by the previous example,check-in information may identify a specific building or set ofbuildings, area, city, county, state, country, neighborhood, business,or any other suitable place. Check-in information may be recorded andstored, creating check-in histories for one or more users. Check-inhistories may include any suitable information, such as the check-in, atime stamp of when the check-in was created, a time stamp of when one ormore users were at the place, other users who were with the user, anycontent associated with the check-in, or any other suitable information.Check-ins and check-in history may be displayed to any suitable user andaccording to privacy settings of the user to whom the check-ininformation belongs, identifies, and/or originated from. For example, inthe context of a social network, check-in information (and, any suitableassociated information) may be displayed as a story, as a pushnotification, in an email notification, in an SMS or MMS message, on anewsfeed or ticker, on a profile page, or in any other suitable mannerin association with the social network. In particular embodiments, auser associated with a check-in may control information about thatuser's association. In particular embodiments, a user associated with acheck-in may control any or all information about the check-in.

Check-ins and associated information may be displayed to any suitableusers in any suitable manner. For example, a user of a social networkmay create check-in content on a social network. Other users of thesocial network may view the check-in and, possibly, any associatedinformation, in particular embodiments according to the preferences ofone or both users. Check-in information may also be displayed to a userbased on the user's affinity for the check-in or information associatedwith the check. For example, the affinity may be calculated by one ormore coefficients, as described more fully herein. As an example,check-ins generated by a user's first-degree connections or by userswhom the user most frequently interacts with may have a higher affinityto the user than do other check-ins. As described more fully herein,check-ins may be presented on any suitable device using any suitablemethod of presentation.

Check-in information may be presented to one or more users. As anexample, a user may query social-network content for check-ininformation from the user, from all other users, from particular users,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments, thequery may filter non-check-in information, thus displaying only check-ininformation and/or associated content. In particular embodiments, a usermay access historical check-ins. Historical check-in information may bepresented to one or more users. The user may run queries on thecheck-ins, filter the check-ins, organize display of the check-insaccording to various criteria, or any suitable combination thereof. Forexample, a user may run queries on check-ins to search for particularusers, places, and/or types of places associated with the check-in. Asanother example, a user may run queries for particular contentassociated with check-ins or for check-ins at a particular time. Theuser may run queries for any suitable combination of criteria.Presentation of check-in information may be made according to anysuitable predetermined and/or user-selected criteria. For example,check-in information may be organized by place (e.g. cities); chronology(e.g. reverse); popularity (e.g. most liked or checked-into places thatone or more other users have visited), which may include the mostpopular places for a subset of users, such as the user's friends; typeof place (e.g. restaurant, bar, museum, etc.); time of check-in; contentassociated with the check-in; or any suitable combination thereof. Inparticular embodiments, presentation may be organized by more than onecriteria, for example by organizing types of places by chronology.User's may view, filter, comment on, or otherwise interact with theircheck-ins and other users' check-ins according to appropriate userpreferences.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 maydetermine a geographic location (hereinafter also simply “location”) ofan object (e.g., a user, a concept, or a mobile-client system 130associated with a user or concept). The location of an object may beidentified and stored as a street address (e.g., “1601 Willow Road”), aset of geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), a reference toanother location or object (e.g., “the coffee shop next to the trainstation”), a reference to a map tile (e.g., “map tile 32”), or usinganother suitable identifier. In particular embodiments, the location ofan object may be provided by a user of an online social network. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a user may input his location bychecking-in at the location or otherwise providing an indication of hislocation. As another example and not by way of limitation, a user mayinput the location of a concept (e.g., a place or venue) by accessingthe profile page for the concept and entering the location information(e.g., the stress address) of the concept. In particular embodiment, thelocation of a mobile-client system 130 equipped with cellular, Wi-Fi,GPS, or other suitable capabilities may be identified withgeographic-positioning signals. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a mobile-client system 130 may include one or more sensorsthat may facilitate geo-location functionalities of the system.Processing of sensor inputs by the mobile-client system 130 with one ormore sensor devices (for example, processing a GPS sensor signal anddisplaying in the device's graphical user interface a map of a locationcorresponding to the GPS sensor signal) may be implemented by acombination of hardware, software, and/or firmware (or device drivers).Example geographic-positioning signals include signals obtained by celltower triangulation, Wi-Fi positioning, or GPS positioning. Inparticular embodiments, a geographic location of an Internet-connectedcomputing device can be identified by the computer's IP address. Amobile-client system 130 may also have additional functionalitiesincorporating geographic-location data of the device, such as, forexample, providing driving directions, displaying a map of a currentlocation, or providing information of nearby points of interest such asrestaurants, gas stations, etc. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a web browser application on the mobile-client system 130may access a mapping library (e.g., via a function call) that generatesa map containing a GPS location obtained by a device driver interpretinga GPS signal from a GPS sensor, and display the map in the web browserapplication's graphical user interface. In particular embodiments, thelocation of a user may be determined from a search history associatedwith the user. As an example and not by way of limitation, if aparticular user has previously queried for objects in a particularlocation, the social-networking system 160 (or the search-engine system170) may assume that the user is still at that particular location.Although this disclosure describes determining the location of an objectin a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates determining thelocation of an object in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 may maintaina database of information relating to locations. The social-networkingsystem 160 may also maintain meta information about particularlocations, such as, for example, photos of the location, advertisements,user reviews, comments, check-in activity data, “like” activity data,hours of operation, or other suitable information related to thelocation. In particular embodiments, a location may correspond to aconcept node 204 in a social graph 200 (such as, for example, asdescribed previously or as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/763,171, which is incorporated by reference herein). Thesocial-networking system 160 may allow users to access informationregarding a location using a client application (e.g., a web browser orother suitable application) hosted by a mobile-client system 130. As anexample and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 mayserve webpages (or other structured documents) to users that requestinformation about a location. In addition to user profile and locationinformation, the system may track or maintain other information aboutthe user. As an example and not by way of limitation, thesocial-networking system 160 may support geo-social-networkingfunctionality including one or more location-based services that recordthe user's location. As an example and not by way of limitation, usersmay access the geo-social-networking system using a special-purposeclient application hosted by a mobile-client system 130 of the user (ora web- or network-based application using a browser client). The clientapplication may automatically access GPS or other geo-location functionssupported by the mobile-client system 130 and report the user's currentlocation to the geo-social-networking system. In addition, the clientapplication may support geo-social networking functionality that allowsusers to check-in at various locations and communicate this location toother users. A check-in to a given location may occur when a user isphysically located at a location and, using a mobile-client system 130,access the geo-social-networking system to register the user's presenceat the location. The social-networking system 160 may automaticallycheck-in a user to a location based on the user's current location andpast location data (such as, for example, as described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/042,357, which is incorporated by referenceherein). In particular embodiments, the social-networking system 160 mayallow users to indicate other types of relationships with respect toparticular locations, such as “like,” “fan,” “worked at,” “recommended,”“attended,” or another suitable type of relationship. In particularembodiments, “check-in” information and other relationship informationmay be represented in the social graph 200 as an edge 206 connecting theuser node 202 of the user to the concept node 204 of the location.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be able toautomatically and without any manual input from the user, track thelocation of mobile client system 130. Social-networking system 160 maypoll or “ping” the mobile client system 130 at pre-determined intervalsto obtain location information through an application of mobile clientsystem 130 running in a background mode. In response to the ping, theapplication of mobile client system 130 may activate a location serviceof mobile client system 130. In particular embodiments, a process onmobile client system 130 may periodically send location updates tosocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, locationupdates may be provided by a mobile client system 130 through anysuitable means such as cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi based locationservices, or tracking Bluetooth MAC addresses. In particularembodiments, a place may determine the location of one or more userswithin the place based on any suitable method, and provide the locationinformation to social-networking system 160. Social-networking system160 may adjust the polling frequency or sampling duration based onvarious factors. Background location updates are further described inU.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0331119, filed 6 Feb. 2013,and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/323,915, filed 3 Jul. 2014,which are incorporated by reference herein.

A user's location may be converted to one or more places by any suitablemethod, such as, for example and not by way of limitation, by accessinga data object mapping locations to places or by using user input toidentify a place. As used herein, a “location” may refer to adescription of a physical location, such as for example anidentification of values of coordinates in a coordinate system, such asfor example an identification of latitude, longitude, and/or altitude.As used herein, a “place” may refer to a description of an entity,structure, area or region, and/or events at a particular location.Examples of places include addresses, businesses (such as restaurants,etc.), landmarks, parks, concerts, sporting events, cities, states, orany other suitable place. A location or place may have a granularityassociated with it, which may indicate the size of the location orplace. For example, a business is more granular than a city, which ismore granular than a state. A location or place may also include aconfidence value associated with the location or place indicating aconfidence that the identified location or place accurately representsthe location or place intended to be identified, e.g., where the userand/or the user's client device actually are. Confidence values may beassociated with various granularities. For example, a confidence that auser is at a particular business within a shopping center may be lowerthan a confidence that the user is at the shopping center.

When a user checks in to a place or initiates a process to check-in to aplace, a user may be able to associate one or more other individualswith the check-in. The individuals may be users of a social network. Inparticular embodiments, the user may be prompted to associatedindividuals with the check-in. In particular embodiments, prompting theuser may include suggesting one or more individuals for the user toassociate with the check-in. This disclosure contemplates prompting theuser to associate any suitable content with a check-in, not just otherusers. As used herein “a check-in process” may be any suitable processfor creating a check-in, such as entering check-in information in a GUIsuch as a composer of social-network content, initiating a process thatautomatically creates a check-in, establishing periodic or otherwiseautomatic check-ins, or any other suitable process. When a processincludes interacting with multiple elements or GUIs, or multiple stepstaken by a computing device, this disclosure contemplates the check-inprocess as referencing one or more of those interactions or steps.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method 300 for suggesting one or moreusers for a user of a social network to associate with a check-in. Themethod may begin a step 310, where input is received from a usercorresponding to a check-in process. Such input may include initiatingthe check-in process, furthering the check-in process, or the like, forexample by using a client computing device.

At step 320, a check-in history for the user may be accessed. Thecheck-in history may be accessed from any suitable computing device,such as the computing device used by the user to create the check-in, orby a server computing device. The check-in history may contain anysuitable information relevant to past check-ins and content associatedwith those check-ins. In particular embodiments, a check-in history mayinclude an identification of one or more second users that the firstuser (i.e., the user creating the check-in) has previously associatedwith a previous check-in for the first user. In particular embodiments,a check-in history may include an identification of one or more secondusers that have previously checked in with the first user. For example,if a second user views a check-in by the first user and indicates thatthey were at the checked-in place with the first user, then suchinformation may be stored in check-in history. As indicated by theprevious embodiments, check-in history may include an identification ofthe user that associated another user (or himself) with a check-in. Inparticular embodiments, a check-in history may include an identificationof one or more characteristics of one or more users that the first userhas previously checked in with. Characteristics may be of any suitabletype. For example, characteristics may include demographic informationsuch as age, sex, location, residence, employment status, and so forth.Characteristics may include interest in similar events, persons,entities, or concepts. Such interest may be determined by, for example,an affinity for that event, person, entity, or concept. Characteristicsmay include membership or affiliation with one or more other users orentities, such as membership in a group. Characteristics may includeshared traits, such as similar connections between users (and, inparticular embodiments, degrees-of-separation between a user and thoseconnections). Characteristics may include similar activity, such assimilar activity on a social network (for example, posting content aboutevents at the same concert, frequently posting about concerts at aparticular park, etc.). In particular embodiments, characteristics maybe determined by any suitable information associated with users' nodesor edges in a social network.

In particular embodiments, a check-in history may include anidentification of a degree of separation between the node representingthe first user and one or more nodes representing the one or more secondusers. For example, the check-in history may include an identificationof whether a user associated with a previous check-in was a friend, afriend-of-a-friend, or something more removed. In particularembodiments, a check-in history may include an identification of one ormore nodes in a social network that the first user and one or moresecond users are both connected to. In particular embodiments, acheck-in history may include an identification of one or more placesthat the first user and one or more of the second users have previouslychecked into at or near the same time. For example, a first user mayhave checked into a sporting event, and a second user may have checkedinto the same sporting event. Thus, both users indicated that they wereat the sporting event, even if they had not associated their presencewith each other. A check-in history may include a frequency of suchcheck-ins, for example, that a user checks in to most home games for theSan Francisco Giants. In particular embodiments, a check-in history mayinclude an identification of a type of one or more places that the firstuser and one or more of the second users have previously checked into ator near the same time. For example, a check-in history may identify thata first user and a second user tend to check-in to fast-food restaurantson Friday night. In particular embodiments, a check-in history mayinclude an identification of one or more times identifying when thefirst user and one or more of the second users have checked in with eachother. For example, a check-in history may indicate that a first userand a second user check-in together on Sunday afternoons. In particularembodiments, a check-in history may include a number of times that auser has checked in with another user. In particular embodiments, acheck-in history may include an identification of a previous check-inidentifying both the first user and at least one of the one or moresecond users. For example, a check-in history may identify that thefirst user and the second user were both associated with a check-in by athird user. While this disclosure describes specific examples ofinformation that may be found in check-in history for a user, thisdisclosure contemplates that a check-in history may store or point toany suitable information related to a check-in or its associatedcontent.

At step 330, one or more other users may be identified based on anysuitable criteria, including information found in a check-in history ofthe user creating the check-in. Such criteria may include any of theinformation identified above that may be part of a check-in history,whether or not such information is stored in a check-in history or insome other data object. An example criterion for identifying one or moresecond users to suggest to a first user to associate with a check-inincludes one or more second users that a user has previously checked inwith. For example, a first user may be more likely to be with, or bewilling to check-in with, other users that they first user has checkedin with in the past. An identification may take into account a recencyand/or frequency at which the first user has checked in with in thepast. For example, if a user recently associated a second user as beingat Times Square in New York City, and ten minutes later checks into aramen restaurant near Times Square, then the second user may likelystill be with the first user and may be identified. As another example,if a user associates a particular group of second users every Fridaynight with the user's check-in, then that group of second users mayidentified when the user creates a check-in on Friday night. Inparticular embodiments, criterion may include one or more second usersthat have previously checked in with the first user. In other words,second users who have previously associated themselves with a check-infor the first user may be identified, and possibly suggested, to a firstuser creating a check-in. As for the example above, recency and/orfrequency may both be taken into account when identifying second users.In particular embodiments, whether the first user previously associateda second user with a previous check-in or the second user associated thesecond user with the previous check-in may be taken into account. Forexample, the first user may be more likely to check-in people that thefirst user has previously checked in, as those second users may berelatively more important or meaningful to the first user's check-inswhen the user has previously taken time to check those users in. Inparticular embodiments, criterion may include characteristics of one ormore users that the first user has previously checked in with. Forexample, second users may be identified based on an age of users thatthe first user has previously checked in with (whether the second usersare associated with the check-in by the first user or by anyone else).As for any of the examples herein, this criterion may be combined withone or more other criterion to identify second users. For example,previous check-ins made by the first user or by second users mayindicate that the first user has recently been touring with a largegroup and thus is likely to still be with that group. However, the usermay be more likely to check-in with particular users in that group, suchas users that share the same age, interests, etc. In particularembodiments, criterion may include an identification of a degree ofseparation between the node representing the first user and one or morenodes representing the one or more second users. For example, a firstuser may be more likely to check-in with second users that are moreclosely connected to the first user, such as the user's friends orfriends-of-friends. In particular embodiments, criterion may include anidentification of one or more nodes that the first user and one or moresecond users are connected to. For example, a first user and a seconduser may both have a “like” edge connecting their respective nodes to anode representing the Seattle Seahawks. The first user may be morelikely to associate with a check-in at a Seahawks vs. Chargers game thatsecond user than with another second user that the first user has thesame relationship with but who is connected by a “like” edge to the SanFrancisco Forty-Niners. In particular embodiments, criterion may includea place that the first user and other second users have bothindependently previously checked in at. For example, if a first andsecond user have independently previously checked in to a neighborhooddive bar, then the second user may be suggested to the first user thenext time the first user checks in to the dive bar. In particularembodiments, this criterion may include both place and time. Forexample, a first user and a second user who are friends may haveindependently checked in to a burrito place at lunch time on Wednesdays.When the first user checks in to the burrito place the followingWednesday, the second user may be suggested to the first user toassociate with the check-in. As for any of the examples herein, any of arecency of check-ins, frequency of check-ins, relationships betweenusers, shared interests between users, time of day, type of place, pastcheck-in behavior, or any other suitable criterion may also be takeninto account.

In particular embodiments, criterion may include a type of place thatthe first user and one or more of the second users have previouslychecked into, possibly at the same or similar times. For example, if thefirst user frequently checks into wineries and a second user does thesame, the second user may be identified when the first user checks in toa winery. In particular embodiments, criterion may include anidentification of one or more times identifying when the first user andone or more of the second users have checked in with each other. Forexample, if the first user and second user have checked into togetheraround noon on Sundays (e.g. for brunch), then the second user may beidentified when the first user checks in to a lunch place around noon onSunday. In particular embodiments, criterion may include a recencybetween a check-in that associated both a first and second user,regardless of the creator or originator of the check-in or of whoassociated the first or second user with the check-in. For example, ifboth the first user and the second user were identified with a check-inin the past 15 minutes, then the second user may be identified when thefirst user creates a check-in. In particular embodiments, criterion mayinclude past user behavior associated with check-ins. For example,second users that a first user consistently associates with a check-inor consistently declines to associate with check-ins may be identified.In the latter case, those second users may not be suggested to the firstuser. As another example, a first user who consistently declines toassociate anyone with check-ins may receive fewer overall suggestions orless frequent suggestions than a user who more frequently associatesother users with check-ins.

In particular embodiments, identifying one or more second users mayinclude ranking those second users. For example, second users may beranked on the likelihood that a first user will associate them with acheck-in, on the likelihood that a second user will allow (or at least,not remove) such an association (if such functionality exists), and/oron the likelihood that the first and second users were, are, or will beat the same place. Those likelihoods may be based on any suitablefactor, such as the factors discussed above for identifying a user.Thus, in particular embodiments, the second users most likely to berelevant to a first user's check-in may be more likely to be presentedto a first user than are second users who are less relevant. Inparticular embodiments, identifying one or more second users may includeidentifying those second users whose likelihood of being associated witha check-in for a first user exceeds a predetermined threshold. Inparticular embodiments, identifying a user may take into account privacyconsiderations of the first or second users. As an example, second usersthat do not permit other users to associate them with a check-in may beidentified as not to be presented to the first user as a suggestion toassociate with a check-in. As another example, a user may be less likelyto be associated with a check-in that may include sensitive information,such as a check-in to a bar or at a casino in Las Vegas. In particularembodiments, information indicating that the second user is associatedwith such check-ins may be presented only to certain users (e.g.non-co-workers) or may require consent from the second user before beingpresented to any or some other users.

At step 340, information identifying at least one of the other users maybe provided for display to the user in association with the check-in(i.e., the first user). In particular embodiments, providing theinformation for display includes displaying the information to the user.Displaying the information in association with the check-in may includedisplaying the information during a check-in process, such as forexample providing a list of the other users to the user creating thecheck-in. In particular embodiments, displaying the information inassociation with the check-in may include displaying the informationafter the check-in has been created. For example, a user may create andpost a check-in to a social network, and one or more other users maysubsequently be suggested to the user to associate with the check-in. Inparticular embodiments, displaying the information in association withthe check-in may include displaying the identified users according toone or more filters or rankings In particular embodiments, displayingthe information in association with the check-in may include displayingan icon or other GUI element that indicates that one or more suggestionsexist for the user to associate with the check-in. Interacting with theelement may reveal at least some of the other users. In particularembodiments, the user can sort, filter, query, or perform any othersuitable operation on the displayed information.

Once the information identifying the other users is displayed, the usermay interact with the display, such as for example by selecting some ofthe information, to associate another user with the check-in. Thecheck-in may then include information identifying the other user(s), forexample indicating that the other users were at the place with the usercreating the check-in.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 3, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 3 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 3 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forsuggesting one or more users for a user of a social network to associatewith a check-in including the particular steps of the method of FIG. 3,this disclosure contemplates any suitable method for suggesting one ormore users for a user of a social network to associate with a check-inincluding any suitable steps, which may include all, some, or none ofthe steps of the method of FIG. 3, where appropriate. Furthermore,although this disclosure describes and illustrates particularcomponents, devices, or systems carrying out particular steps of themethod of FIG. 3, this disclosure contemplates any suitable combinationof any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying out anysuitable steps of the method of FIG. 3.

In particular embodiments, one or more second users may be suggested toa first user to associate with a check-in based at least in part on adistance between the users. In particular embodiments, distance may be acriterion that is taken into account along with any of the criteriondiscussed above for identifying a second user. FIG. 4 illustrates anexample method 400 for suggesting one or more users for a user of asocial network to associate with a check-in. FIG. 4 may begin with step410, where input is received from a user corresponding to a check-in forthe user. The description relating to step 310 applies to step 410, aswell. At step 420, the location of one or more second users is accessed,and at step 430, the location of the first user is accessed. At step440, one or more second users are identified based at least in part on acomparison between the location of the first user and the locations ofeach of the second users. The descriptions of accessing information andproviding information for display or displaying information provided inrelation to FIG. 3 apply to the method of FIG. 4, as well.

In particular embodiments, step 440 may include determining the distancebetween the first and second user. Distance may be determined by anysuitable manner, such as by estimating the distance between the users orby calculating the distance according to known or estimated locations.Location may be determined by any suitable method, including by explicitand implicit methods discussed more fully herein. For example, one orboth of the locations of the first and second user may be determined byexplicit information input by those users. As another example, locationinformation may be determined by implicit determinations of location(e.g. without user input). For example, user location may be determinedby one or more background processes, such as a process that periodicallyinvokes location determination by a user's mobile device withoutrequiring manual input or intervention by the user. Such methods includethose described more fully in U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2013/0331119, filed 6 Feb. 2013, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/323,915, filed 3 Jul. 2014, which are both incorporated herein byreference.

As described above, distance may be determined by estimating suchdistances. As an example, distance may be estimated based on socialcontent or activities that indicate where a user was, is, or will be.For example, accepting an invite to an event indicates that a userintends to be at the event place at the time of the event. As anotherexample, a post such as “Atmosphere at the San Jose Sharks game isawesome!” may indicate that a user is at the Sharks game. Past check-inhistory may also be used to infer distances. For example, a user who 30minutes ago checked into a place 300 miles away from another user'scheck-in 30 is unlikely to be near the other user. As indicated by theprevious example, distances may be estimated qualitatively (e.g., “far”or “near”), not just quantitatively.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 4, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 4 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 4 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forsuggesting one or more users for a user of a social network to associatewith a check-in including the particular steps of the method of FIG. 4,this disclosure contemplates any suitable method for suggesting one ormore users for a user of a social network to associate with a check-inincluding any suitable steps, which may include all, some, or none ofthe steps of the method of FIG. 4, where appropriate. Furthermore,although this disclosure describes and illustrates particularcomponents, devices, or systems carrying out particular steps of themethod of FIG. 4, this disclosure contemplates any suitable combinationof any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying out anysuitable steps of the method of FIG. 4.

As described above, a second user may be suggested to a first user toassociate with a check-in based on various criteria, such as pastcheck-in history and distances between the users. In particularembodiments, one or more criteria may be used to screen second users;i.e., if the second user does not meet the screening criteria, then thesecond user will not be suggested to the first user. In particularembodiments, criteria may be used to rank or select second users who aremost likely to be relevant to the first user's check-in. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable criteria or combinations of criteria used torank, filter, screen, or otherwise suggest second users for the firstuser to associate with a check-in.

In particular embodiments, a first user may wish to associate themselveswith a check-in that has been created by another user. For example, ifthe first user is viewing social-network content and sees that one ofthe user's friends checked in to a restaurant last night, the first usermay wish to associate themselves with the check-in if they were also atthe restaurant last night. Thus, a first user may be presented withfunctionality to associate himself with a check-in. FIG. 5 illustratesan example method 500 for providing a first user the ability toassociate himself with a check-in displayed to the first user. At step510, a notification is generated for the first user that describes acheck-in by a second user. This disclosure contemplates any suitablenotification, including notifications by email, SMS, MMS, text, push, ona newsfeed, ticker, or page of a social network, or any other suitablemethod. In particular embodiments, a notification may be generated for afirst user based on the first user's affinity for the second user, for aplace corresponding to the check-in, for content associated with thecheck-in, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition or thealternative, a notification may be generated for a first user based onthe second user's affinity for the first user, based on a check-inhistory for the first user and/or the second user, or any suitablecombination thereof

At step 520, the method determines whether to generate an interactiveelement in association with the check-in that will allow the user toassociate himself with the check-in. The interactive element may be ofany suitable type, such as a button, slider, icon, link, etc., and maytake any suitable visual form or representation. In particularembodiments, the interactive element is displayed as part of thecheck-in notification. In particular embodiments, the interactiveelement may be displayed apart from the notification, such as in aseparate email or part of a separate notification. In particularembodiments, the interactive element may include functionality toassociate the first user or decline associating the first user, i.e. toaffirmatively indicate that the first user does or does not want toassociate with the check-in.

In particular embodiments, the interactive element may be presented to auser with each check-in that is the user is notified about. Inparticular embodiments, the interactive element may be presented foronly certain notifications. This disclosure contemplates any suitablemethod of determining whether to present the interactive element to auser in association with the notification. For example, any of thecriterion for identifying a second user for a first user to associatewith a check-in, as described more fully herein, may be used todetermine whether to present a first user with an interactive elementthat allows them to associate with a check-in crated by another user.For example, the check-in history of the first user or of the seconduser, or both, may be used to determine whether to present theinteractive element to the first user. As another example, the locationof the first user relative to the place identified by a check-in—eithera location at the time of the check-in or the user's currentlocation—may be used to determine whether to generate the interactiveelement. A first user may be more likely to interact with, including toassociate with a check-in, an interactive element corresponding to acheck-in, place, content, or second user generating the check-in whenany or all of those things are more relevant to the first user. Thus,any of the description herein of determining relevance, includingaffinity, may be used to determine whether an interactive element willbe presented to the first user. In particular embodiments, users'preferences, including privacy settings, may determine whether topresent a notification and/or an interactive element.

At step 530, when the interactive element is to be generated, then theinteractive element is generated and provided for display to the firstuser in association with the notification. In particular embodiments,step 530 includes displaying the interactive element and thenotification to the first user. Any suitable disclosure herein forproviding content for display to a user may be utilized in step 530,where appropriate.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 5, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 5 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 5 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forproviding a first user the ability to associate himself with a check-indisplayed to the first user including the particular steps of the methodof FIG. 5, this disclosure contemplates any suitable method forproviding a first user the ability to associate himself with a check-indisplayed to the first user including any suitable steps, which mayinclude all, some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG. 5, whereappropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of the method of FIG. 5, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 5.

In particular embodiments, when the first user interacts with theinteractive element to associate the first user with the notification,then the first user may be associated with notification. For example, aserver, such as a server of a social network, may receive informationidentifying the interaction and may associate the user with the check-in(e.g., by adding an edge between the first user and the check-in and/orthe place represented by the check-in). In particular embodiments, whena first user interacts with the interactive element to associate thefirst user with the notification, the second user may be sent anotification of the interaction. In particular embodiments, the seconduser may be presented with an interactive element to allow or disallowthe first user from associating with the second user's check-in. Inparticular embodiments, the second user may be presented with thenotification before the first user is associated with the notification.In particular embodiments, the second user may be presented with thenotification after the user is associated, but may then confirm or undothat association. In particular embodiments, the second user may controlwhich other users may see the association. In particular embodiments,another user associated with the check-in may control who can associatewith the check-in and/or who can see the association, at least with thatother user.

In particular embodiments, when the second user can allow or deny theassociation, the association may be evaluated according to one or morecriteria before requiring input from the second user. In particularembodiments, the criteria could be established at least in part by userpreferences. In particular embodiments, the criteria may beautomatically established, e.g. by a set of rules implemented by asocial network. For example, the second user could identify places,times, other users, types of places, or any suitable information orcombination of information that automatically allows or disallowsassociation with a check-in. Such criteria could be any suitablecriteria, including the criterion identified above for identifying asecond user to associate with a check-in for a first user, describedmore fully herein. In particular embodiments, a criterion may be amaximum degrees-of-separation, such as two, between the first user andthe second user in the social graph. In particular embodiments, thecriterion may include a minimum degrees of separation, below which afirst user must is automatically associated without requiring anyfurther input from the second user. In particular embodiments, criterionmay include or be based on a check-in history for one or more users. Inparticular embodiments, the criterion may be negative criteria, i.e.criteria the disallows association with check-ins. In particularembodiments, the criteria may be positive criteria, i.e. criteria thatallows association. In particular embodiments, the criteria may becriteria that establishes the need for second-user input. In particularembodiments, a second user may review any or all associations and manualallow or deny such associations. In particular embodiments, everyassociation may be presented to a second user for approval. Inparticular embodiments, the second user can vary any of the criteria andits outcome (e.g. automatically allowing or disallowing the association,or forwarding to the second user).

As discussed more fully herein, a user may generate content for a socialnetwork. In particular embodiments, a user may be provided withsuggested content to create or associate with a social network. Suchcontent may be any suitable content, such as for example a post,check-in, connection (such as creation of an edge), comment, or anyother suitable content. In particular embodiments, an indicator may bepresented to a user to indicate that a suggestion exists or thatsuggested content is being determined. In particular embodiments, theindicator may indicate a quality of a suggestion, i.e. that ahigh-quality suggestion exists or is being determined.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method 600 for providing a user with agraphical indicator indicating that a high-quality suggestion forcontent for the user to generate in connection with a social network isbeing or has been determined. At step 610, input may be received from auser indicating that the user intends to create social-network content.In particular embodiments, such input may be a user opening a composer,opening a social-network application or webpage, creating content,posting content, or any other suitable input.

At step 620, an indicator is provided for display to a user indicatingthat suggested content has been or is being determined. In particularembodiments, the indicator may also indicate that the quality of thesuggestion has or will exceed a quality threshold. The threshold may beestablished by any suitable method, such as evaluating the user'saffinity for the content, other users' (such as friends) affinity forthe content, a likelihood of the user adopting the suggestion, or anyother suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments, if one ormore suggestions are available, the suggestions may be ranked prior topresentation to the user. The suggestions may be presented as ranked, oronly the top-ranked suggestion may be presented. If the user declines atop-ranked suggestion then the next-ranked suggestion may be presented,and so on.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 6, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 6 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 6 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forproviding a user with a graphical indicator indicating that ahigh-quality suggestion for content for the user to generate inconnection with a social network is being or has been determinedincluding the particular steps of the method of FIG. 6, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable method for providing a user with a graphicalindicator indicating that a high-quality suggestion for content for theuser to generate in connection with a social network is being or hasbeen determined including any suitable steps, which may include all,some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG. 6, where appropriate.Furthermore, although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular components, devices, or systems carrying out particular stepsof the method of FIG. 6, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecombination of any suitable components, devices, or systems carrying outany suitable steps of the method of FIG. 6.

In particular embodiments, the appearance of an indicator may depend onparticular aspects of the suggestion. For example, the indicator maytake one appearance when a suggestion is being determined and a secondappearance when whether such a suggestion exists is being determined.The indicator may take a third appearance when the suggestion exists andwhen the quality of the suggestion (i.e., the suggested content) exceedsa particular threshold. For example, the third appearance may indicatethat the user is relatively likely to adopt the suggestion, or thatother users are likely to interact with the content if the user poststhat content. The different appearances may include different or variousamounts of graphical emphasis or embellishment. For example, theindicator may be emphasized when suggested content is determinedrelative to when whether suggested content exists is being determined.The indicator may be even more emphasized when a relatively high qualitysuggestion has been determined. Emphasis may include any suitableemphasis, such as audio, graphical, tactile, or the like. Graphicalemphasis may take any suitable form, such as a size of the indicator, acolor of the indicator, a brightness of the indicator, an animation ofthe indicator, a shape of the indicator, a placement of the indicator ona GUI, or any other suitable graphical emphasis. Emphasis, includinggraphical emphasis, may be also or in the alternative be used toindicate the relative quality of a suggestion. In other words, arelatively higher quality suggestions may be more emphasized than arelatively lower-quality suggestion.

Suggested content may be of any suitable type. For example, suggestedcontent may be content describing an activity such as an event the useris attending, a sport the user is playing, or anything that the user maybe doing, was doing, or about to do or interact with. In particularembodiments, suggested content may include an identification ofelectronic content that he user is interacting with, such as audio thata user is listening to, video that the user is watching, images that theuser is viewing, an application that the user is interacting with, or soon. Detecting such activity and interactions may be performed in anysuitable manner, including those described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,706,499and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0067945, both of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

In particular embodiments, suggested content may include suggestedinformation relating to a check-in. In particular embodiments, suchcontent may be a suggestion for a check-in itself, or may be suggestionfor information or content to associate with a check-in, such as one ormore other users, as described more fully herein. In particularembodiments, determining the quality of content for a suggested check-inor content to associate with a check-in may be based on criteria, suchas for example a check-in history for the user, a place associated withthe check-in, a confidence that the suggested location or place is theactual location or place that the user is at, a type of place associatedwith a check-in, a time of day associated with the check-in, or anyother suitable criteria. This disclosure contemplates that any of thecriteria used to identify one or more second users to a first user maybe used to determine a quality for a suggestion or suggested contentrelated to a check-in for a user.

In particular embodiments, a user may be automatically associated with acheck-in. For example, a user may be automatically associated with anexisting check-in. For example, regarding the method of FIG. 5, a firstuser may be automatically associated with another user's existingcheck-in—based on criteria such as the relevance of the check-in to thefirst user—and may be presented with an interactive element to confirmthe association or to de-associate with the check-in. In particularembodiments, a user may be automatically associated with a check-in whencreating social-network content.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method 700 for automatically generating acheck-in for a user of a social network. At step 710, input is receivedfrom a user of the social network indicating that the user is or intendsto create content. As described more fully herein, such input mayinclude a user opening a composer, creating content, accessing a socialnetwork, or any other suitable input. At Step 720, information about oneor more places corresponding to the user's location is accessed. Inparticular embodiments, step 720 may include an explicit determinationof a place or location made by a user. This disclosure contemplates anysuitable method for determining location or places, as described morefully herein. At step 730, a check-in to the place, or to the placecorresponding to the location, is automatically generated. At step 740the check-in is associated with the content. For example, if the user isgenerating content, then the check-in may be associated with thecontent. In particular embodiments, a user may be notified that check-inhas been automatically created, for example by an indicator such as theindicator of FIG. 6. If the user indicates an intent to generatecontent, then the check-in may be stored and then associated with thecontent that the user ultimately generates. In particular embodiments,whether to associate a check-in with content may depend on the contentthat is generated. In particular embodiments, whether to associated acheck-in with content may depend on a check-in history for the user, aplace the user is at, a time of day, a type of place, or any othersuitable information. For example, any of the information described inconnection with identifying a second user for a first user to associatewith a check-in may be used determine whether to automatically generatea check-in, whether to associate a check-in with particular content, orboth.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 7, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 7 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 7 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forautomatically generating a check-in for a user of a social networkincluding the particular steps of the method of FIG. 7, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable method for automatically generating a check-infor a user of a social network including any suitable steps, which mayinclude all, some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG. 7, whereappropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of the method of FIG. 7, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 7.

In particular embodiments, an interactive element may be presented tothe user to edit the check-in, such as removing the check-in, addinginformation to the check-in, etc. In particular embodiments, the methodof FIG. 7 may be performed periodically, e.g. each time content isgenerated, or potentially apart from content generation, such as on afixed schedule or as a result of a triggering event. For example, steps720-740 may be performed each time a change in the user's location orplace is detected, using any of the methods for detecting a location orplace as described herein. A check-in may then be automaticallygenerated for that place. In particular embodiments, a check-in historymay be automatically created using at least the automatic check-ins. Inparticular embodiments, the user's check-ins may be displayed, forexample as a map showing the places a user went, a time the user was atthose places, and/or routes the user took. For example, a uservacationing in Paris could show other users where the user went and howthe user got there. The user's privacy preferences and settings maygovern which users can see which check-ins, whether check-ins can beautomatically created, and/or whether check-ins can be automaticallyassociated with any or certain content.

In particular embodiments, step 730 may determine a place based a onconfidence associated with a geographic granularity of the place, i.e.how precise the identification of the place is. For example, based onthe user's location it may be fairly certain that the user is at aspecific shopping center but less certain that the user is at a specificrestaurant within that shopping center. In particular embodiments, aconfidence value associated with the granularity may be used todetermine whether to use the place associated with that granularity. Theconfidence value may be determined by any suitable method, and maydepend on the method used to locate the user, the method used todetermine the place, the time since last location, the user's motion atgiven time or over a particular time period, or any other suitablemethod. An automatic check-in may be associated with the place that hasthe highest confidence value. In particular embodiments, the check-inmay be associated with the most precise granularity that has aconfidence value higher than a threshold. In particular embodiments,more than one place may be associated with a check-in. For example, acheck-in may indicate that a user is at “Joya” in Palo Alto, Calif.Thus, three levels of granularity (business, city, state) may bedetermined and presented in a single, automatic check-in. While thisdisclosure discusses particular aspects of granularity in connectionwith FIG. 7, this disclosure applies to check-ins generally, whereappropriate.

Determining the location of a user and converting location into placescan be a computationally intensive process. When generating check-ins orsuggesting places to a user, such as when the user is generatingcontent, determining a place the user is at may take longer than ittakes the user to generate content, forcing the user to wait orrendering the functionality associated with those determinationsunavailable to a user who chooses not to wait. FIG. 8 illustrates anexample method 800 for prefetching location and place data for a user ofclient device. In step 810, the user's computing device determines thelocation of the user in response to an indication that the user is orintends to create content on a social network. While the location updateof step 810 is based on the user creating or intending to createcontent, this disclosure contemplates that the location of the user maybe determined based on any suitable event, such as a periodic locationupdate or a user-requested location update. This disclosure contemplatesany suitable method for determining the location of a user, andcontemplates any suitable indication that the user is or intends tocreate content. In particular embodiments, determining the location of auser involves accessing a previously determined location of the user,such as a most recently determined location. In particular embodiments,the determined location may be the location of the user at or near thetime relevant to the content being generated. For example, for contentreferencing a sporting event from the day before, the determinedlocation may be the location of the user at the time of the sportingevent the day before.

At step 820, the client computing device automatically sends thelocation to another computing device, without requiring any further userinput. For example, the user does not need to approve or request thatthe location information be sent. The external computing device is anysuitable computing device, such as for example a server computing deviceof a social network. The server computing device stores, or has accessto, a data object mapping places to particular locations.

At step 830, the user's client computing device receives from theexternal computing device an identification of one or more places thatcorrespond to the user's location. This disclosure contemplates anysuitable method for determining which places correspond to a user'slocation. For example, the client computing device may receive allplaces within a certain radius, or distance based on any other shape, ofthe location of the client computing device. As another example, theclient computing device may receive only top-ranked places. As anotherexample, the client computing device may receive places based on anysuitable criteria, such as check-in history, the location ofconnections, the degree-of-separation to those connections, a type ofplace, the user's propensity to check-in to a place or type of place,the number of times a user has checked into a place or type of place,any of the criteria for identifying a second user for a first user toassociate with a check-in, or any suitable combination thereof.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 8, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 8 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 8 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forprefetching location and place data for a user of client deviceincluding the particular steps of the method of FIG. 8, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable method for prefetching location and place datafor a user of client device including any suitable steps, which mayinclude all, some, or none of the steps of the method of FIG. 8, whereappropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of the method of FIG. 8, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of the method of FIG. 8.

Once the places are received, the client computing device may displayone or more of the places to the user in connection with location-basedservices, such as generating check-ins. For example, the place may bepresented when suggesting a check-in to a user, used when automaticallygenerating check-in, or any other suitable location-based service,including but not limited to those described more fully herein. Byexecuting the process for receiving place information before the userexplicitly requests such information or initiates an operation thatrequires such information, the example method of FIG. 8 may reduce waittimes for place information. In particular embodiments, the places maybe displayed to a user when the user requests a lists of places, such asto associate with a check-in, or uses a mapping application. Inparticular embodiments, the places may be ranked, for example by theclient computing device or by the external computing device. Ranking maybe based on any suitable criteria, such as for example, the user'scheck-in history, the location of connections in a social network, thedegree-of-separation to those connections, a type of place, the user'spropensity to check-in to a place or type of place, the number of timesa user has checked into a place or type of place, a time of day, any ofthe criteria for identifying a second user for a first user to associatewith a check-in, or any suitable combination thereof. Places that aremore relevant to the user and/or to the content the user is generatingmay be ranked relatively higher, such for example by using the user'saffinity for one or more places or users corresponding to those places.In addition or the alternative, relevance may be determined by alikelihood that user will check-into a particular place, perhaps at thatparticular time. For example, a user may be unlikely to be at a barearly on a Wednesday morning while on a business trip, and thus a barnear the location of the user may be lower ranked. AS another example, auser may be more likely to be at a place when other users that the userrecently checked in with have checked into that place. The likelihood ofa user being at a place may be based on the user's past check-inhistory, check-in history for many users (such as the user'sconnections), check-in history for all users, or check-in history forusers having one or more similar characteristics as the user, such asthe user's age, sex, job, etc. In particular embodiments, ranking may bebased on the velocity of the user, i.e. the speed and direction oftravel of the user. In other words, a user moving in a car at 60 mileper hour is unlikely to check-in to a place at the location the user iscurrently at. In this example, the places received in step 830 may beplaces corresponding to the location of the user and the velocity of theuser, i.e. to places that the user likely is now at (if the motion wasat some previous time) or will be at taking into account the user'slocation and direction of travel. As described above, places the usermay likely be at may be estimated based on any suitable metric, such asthe user's past check-in history or other users' check-in histories.

In particular embodiments, location-based services, such ascheck-in-related services, may require access to a network to downloador access information for those services. For example, recommending aplace to a user may require access to a network to locate the user,determine a place from a location, access mapping information to displayto the user, or the like. In particular embodiments, a user of a clientdevice may wish to use location-based services, such as check-in-relatedservices, when the user's client device has a weak, poor, or otherwisenonexistent connection to a network. As used herein, a client device is“offline” with respect to a network when its connection to that networkis too poor to download or access information necessary forlocation-based services from that network. The connection may be toopoor when the connection is nonexistent, weak, unstable, periodicallyunavailable, or the like. The client device may be offline when thenetwork connection is too poor to download or access necessaryinformation in a useful or usable amount of time, i.e. if the latency ofthe connection is significantly higher than normal. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network, such as a Wi-Fi network, a cellularnetwork, or any other suitable network. This disclosure contemplates anysuitable connection to those networks.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method 900 for providing offline access tolocation and place data to a user of a client device. At step 910, thelocation of the user of a client device is determined. This disclosurecontemplates that the location may be determined by any suitable method,including by estimating the location or by explicit user input.

At step 920, the client device downloads information about one or morelocations and/or places in a geographic region that is based on theuser's location. The places to download and the size or extent of thegeographic region may be determined based on any suitable criteria. Inparticular embodiments, the geographic region may be determined based ona velocity with which the user (i.e., the client device) is moving. Forexample, the geographic region may include more places or locations inthe direction of the user's travel than a geographic region would for auser who is stationary. As another example, the shape of the geographicregion may change, for example by extending a boundary of the region inthe direction of the user's travel. The extension may be based on theuser's speed. As another example, the region may have a center point,and the center point may be determined based on the user's direction oftravel, speed, or both, for example by translating the center of thegeographic region from the user's current location to a location in thedirection of the user's travel. In particular embodiments, thegeographic region may be based on a size of the information downloaded.For example, in a region that has many places per unit area, such as NewYork City, the geographic region may be smaller in physical area than aregion that has fewer places per unit of area, even though identifyingthose places may take the same amount of physical storage on a computerdevice. As another example, the amount of information downloaded may notexceed a threshold amount. The threshold amount may be set by a user,based on the amount of storage in the client device, or a combinationthereof. In particular embodiments, the geographic region may be basedon a distance between the user's location and a perimeter of thegeographic region. For example, if the geographic region is roughlycircular, then the geographic region may be determined by identifyingall the locations and/or places in region roughly defined by aparticular radius. This disclosure contemplates a geographic regionhaving any suitable shape defined by any suitable perimeter (or area, ifthe region is three-dimensional). In particular embodiments, thegeographic region may be based on geographic boundary, such as theboundary of a neighborhood, district, city, shopping area, landmark,general area (such as Times Square in New York City or Union Square inSan Francisco), tourist attraction, park, river, street, or any othersuitable geographic boundary, or any suitable combination thereof. Inparticular embodiments, the geographic region may be based on apopularity of one or more places in the region. For example, the regionmay include places that are relatively popular or areas that includeplaces that are relatively popular. Popularity may be determined by anysuitable method, such as by the popularity of a place as indicated bythe number of “likes” or connections to a node representing the place ina social graph. In particular embodiments, the geographic region may bebased on a time of day. For example, during the evening the region mayinclude more restaurants, theaters, and nightspots, while in the daytimethe region may include more service-oriented businesses. In particularembodiments, the geographic region may be based on a check-in historyfor a user. For example, the region may be based on a check-in historyof the user of the client computing device. Such history could includeprevious places the user has checked into, types of places the user haschecked into, the connections the user has previously checked in with,or any other information or combination of information in the user'scheck-in history. The information that may be in a user's check-inhistory is described more fully herein, and includes, when suitable, anyof information used to identify one or more second users to a first userto associated with a check-in. In particular embodiments, the geographicregion may be based on the check-in history of one or more other users.For example, the popularity of one or more places may be based on thecheck-in history of other users who are within a maximumdegree-of-separation from the user in a social graph.

While this disclosure describes specific examples of criteria fordetermining the geographic region, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable criteria, including any of the criteria used to determinewhether to suggest one or more second user to a first user to associatewith a check-in. Moreover, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecriteria, including that criteria, for downloading specific places in aparticular geographic region. For example, some places in a geographicregion may be included and others may not. For example, the most popularplaces, or the places the user of the client device is most likely tohave an affinity for (perhaps at a particular time of day, such as arestaurant around dinner time) in a particular region may be downloaded.As another example, any of the information described more fully hereinrelating to determining whether to automatically check a user in to aplace may be used to determine which places in a geographic regionshould be downloaded.

Step 920 may be performed at any suitable time. For example, step 920may be performed periodically, when a change in the user's location isdetected, on user demand, when the user's location appreciably changes(for example, when the user arrives in a different city orneighborhood), etc. In particular embodiments, the information may bedownloaded based a strength of a network connection. For example, theinformation may be downloaded when a network connection exceeds acertain signal strength, indicating a strong or reliable networkconnection. As another example, the information may be downloaded whenthe strength of a network connection falls below a particular threshold,for example indicating that a connection may soon be lost. In particularembodiments, the information may be downloaded based on a history of astrength of a network connection. For example, if the strength gets orhas gotten progressively weaker over a period of time, then theinformation may be downloaded. In particular embodiments, informationmay be downloaded based on a prediction of a future strength of anetwork connection. As an example, future network strength may bepredicted based on user input, such as an explicit statement of futurenetwork strength at a particular time or based on content indicatingfuture network strength. For example, a user may generate content for asocial network indicating that the user is about to take a commercialflight, thus indicating that the user's device may soon be in “airplanemode,” causing the information to be downloaded. In that example, theinformation downloaded may be the information associated with thelocation of the user's destination. As another example, the futurestrength of a network connection at a particular place, such as abasement bar, may be known or estimated based on past connections at theplace or at similar places. As another example, future network strengthmay be based on current or previous network strength. For example, ifnetwork strength is periodically poor, future network strength may bepredicted to be the same, and the information may be downloaded—possiblyin portions—as a suitable network connection comes available.

At step 930, the information is stored in a non-transitory memoryelement of the client computing device so that the information can beaccessed by the client device when the client device is offline withrespect to a network connection. Such memory elements may include anon-volatile memory element, such as a hard drive.

Particular embodiments may repeat one or more steps of the method ofFIG. 9, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular steps of the method of FIG. 9 as occurring in aparticular order, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of themethod of FIG. 9 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates an example method forproviding offline access to location and place data to a user of aclient including the particular steps of the method of FIG. 9, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable method for providing offline accessto location and place data to a user of a client including any suitablesteps, which may include all, some, or none of the steps of the methodof FIG. 9, where appropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates particular components, devices, or systemscarrying out particular steps of the method of FIG. 9, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable combination of any suitable components,devices, or systems carrying out any suitable steps of the method ofFIG. 9

In particular embodiments, all or some of the information may be usedfor location-based services and/or presented to a user. For example,when a user attempts to create a check-in, the client device maydetermine whether it is offline. If it is, the client device may accessthe information to determine place information for the check-in. Inparticular embodiments, the client device may access the informationeven when the client device is online, or may determine whether toaccess the information based on the strength of a network connection. Inparticular embodiments, the user may query the information, such as forexample to look up information about places or locations, such as whileusing a navigation application. This disclosure contemplates using theinformation or any portion thereof for any suitable location-basedservice, including the check-in-related functionality described morefully herein.

This disclosure describes several examples of location-based services,including services related to generating check-ins, related to contentrelated to check-ins, or used in connection with check-ins. Thisdisclosure contemplates that any description of relevance of content toa user, or of signals used to determine, rank, evaluate, or generateaspects of location-based services (including check-ins) applies to eachlocation-based service described herein, where appropriate.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example computer system 1000. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 1000 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 1000 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 1000 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 1000.Herein, reference to a computer system may encompass a computing device,and vice versa, where appropriate. Moreover, reference to a computersystem may encompass one or more computer systems, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems1000. This disclosure contemplates computer system 1000 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 1000 may be an embedded computer system, asystem-on-chip (SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, forexample, a computer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), adesktop computer system, a laptop or notebook computer system, aninteractive kiosk, a mainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobiletelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a server, a tabletcomputer system, or a combination of two or more of these. Whereappropriate, computer system 1000 may include one or more computersystems 1000; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; spanmultiple machines; span multiple data centers; or reside in a cloud,which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks.Where appropriate, one or more computer systems 1000 may perform withoutsubstantial spatial or temporal limitation one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein. As an example and not byway of limitation, one or more computer systems 1000 may perform in realtime or in batch mode one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. One or more computer systems 1000 may perform atdifferent times or at different locations one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 1000 includes a processor1002, memory 1004, storage 1006, an input/output (I/O) interface 1008, acommunication interface 1010, and a bus 1012. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 1002 includes hardware forexecuting instructions, such as those making up a computer program. Asan example and not by way of limitation, to execute instructions,processor 1002 may retrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internalregister, an internal cache, memory 1004, or storage 1006; decode andexecute them; and then write one or more results to an internalregister, an internal cache, memory 1004, or storage 1006. In particularembodiments, processor 1002 may include one or more internal caches fordata, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplates processor1002 including any suitable number of any suitable internal caches,where appropriate. As an example and not by way of limitation, processor1002 may include one or more instruction caches, one or more datacaches, and one or more translation lookaside buffers (TLBs).Instructions in the instruction caches may be copies of instructions inmemory 1004 or storage 1006, and the instruction caches may speed upretrieval of those instructions by processor 1002. Data in the datacaches may be copies of data in memory 1004 or storage 1006 forinstructions executing at processor 1002 to operate on; the results ofprevious instructions executed at processor 1002 for access bysubsequent instructions executing at processor 1002 or for writing tomemory 1004 or storage 1006; or other suitable data. The data caches mayspeed up read or write operations by processor 1002. The TLBs may speedup virtual-address translation for processor 1002. In particularembodiments, processor 1002 may include one or more internal registersfor data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplatesprocessor 1002 including any suitable number of any suitable internalregisters, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 1002 mayinclude one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 1002. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 1004 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 1002 to execute or data for processor 1002 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system1000 may load instructions from storage 1006 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 1000) to memory 1004. Processor1002 may then load the instructions from memory 1004 to an internalregister or internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 1002may retrieve the instructions from the internal register or internalcache and decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 1002 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor1002 may then write one or more of those results to memory 1004. Inparticular embodiments, processor 1002 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 1004 (asopposed to storage 1006 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 1004 (asopposed to storage 1006 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (whichmay each include an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor1002 to memory 1004. Bus 1012 may include one or more memory buses, asdescribed below. In particular embodiments, one or more memorymanagement units (MMUs) reside between processor 1002 and memory 1004and facilitate accesses to memory 1004 requested by processor 1002. Inparticular embodiments, memory 1004 includes random access memory (RAM).This RAM may be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate,this RAM may be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 1004 may include one ormore memories 1004, where appropriate. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates particular memory, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 1006 includes mass storage for dataor instructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage1006 may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flashmemory, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more ofthese. Storage 1006 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed)media, where appropriate. Storage 1006 may be internal or external tocomputer system 1000, where appropriate. In particular embodiments,storage 1006 is non-volatile, solid-state memory. In particularembodiments, storage 1006 includes read-only memory (ROM). Whereappropriate, this ROM may be mask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM),electrically alterable ROM (EAROM), or flash memory or a combination oftwo or more of these. This disclosure contemplates mass storage 1006taking any suitable physical form. Storage 1006 may include one or morestorage control units facilitating communication between processor 1002and storage 1006, where appropriate. Where appropriate, storage 1006 mayinclude one or more storages 1006. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular storage, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 1008 includes hardware,software, or both, providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 1000 and one or more I/O devices. Computersystem 1000 may include one or more of these I/O devices, whereappropriate. One or more of these I/O devices may enable communicationbetween a person and computer system 1000. As an example and not by wayof limitation, an I/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone,monitor, mouse, printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet,touch screen, trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or acombination of two or more of these. An I/O device may include one ormore sensors. This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices andany suitable I/O interfaces 1008 for them. Where appropriate, I/Ointerface 1008 may include one or more device or software driversenabling processor 1002 to drive one or more of these I/O devices. I/Ointerface 1008 may include one or more I/O interfaces 1008, whereappropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates aparticular I/O interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitable I/Ointerface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 1010 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 1000 and one or more other computer systems 1000 or oneor more networks. As an example and not by way of limitation,communication interface 1010 may include a network interface controller(NIC) or network adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or otherwire-based network or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter forcommunicating with a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable network and any suitablecommunication interface 1010 for it. As an example and not by way oflimitation, computer system 1000 may communicate with an ad hoc network,a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or moreportions of the Internet or a combination of two or more of these. Oneor more portions of one or more of these networks may be wired orwireless. As an example, computer system 1000 may communicate with awireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FInetwork, a WI-MAX network, a cellular telephone network (such as, forexample, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), orother suitable wireless network or a combination of two or more ofthese. Computer system 1000 may include any suitable communicationinterface 1010 for any of these networks, where appropriate.Communication interface 1010 may include one or more communicationinterfaces 1010, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates a particular communication interface, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable communication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 1012 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 1000 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 1012 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 1012may include one or more buses 1012, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media mayinclude one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits(ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) orapplication-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid harddrives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs),magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppydisk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs),RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitablecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitablecombination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Acomputer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile,non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, whereappropriate.

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

The scope of this disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions,variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodimentsdescribed or illustrated herein that a person having ordinary skill inthe art would comprehend. The scope of this disclosure is not limited tothe example embodiments described or illustrated herein. Moreover,although this disclosure describes and illustrates respectiveembodiments herein as including particular components, elements,feature, functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments mayinclude any combination or permutation of any of the components,elements, features, functions, operations, or steps described orillustrated anywhere herein that a person having ordinary skill in theart would comprehend. Furthermore, reference in the appended claims toan apparatus or system or a component of an apparatus or system beingadapted to, arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operableto, or operative to perform a particular function encompasses thatapparatus, system, component, whether or not it or that particularfunction is activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as thatapparatus, system, or component is so adapted, arranged, capable,configured, enabled, operable, or operative.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: by a client computingdevice, automatically determining, in response to a determination that auser is generating social-network content for display on the socialnetwork and contemporaneous with the user's generation of thesocial-network content, a current location of the user, the socialnetwork comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edgesconnecting the nodes, at least one node corresponding to the user; bythe client computing device, sending, automatically and withoutrequiring further user input and before the social-network content isposted to the social network, the current location to an external servercomputing device; by the client computing device, receiving from theserver an identification of one or more places corresponding to thecurrent location; and by the client computing device, presenting atleast one of the places to the user in association with theuser-generated content.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the contentcomprises a check-in.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user inputcomprises initiating a process to check-in.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more places corresponding to the location are withina predetermined distance of the location.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising by the client computing device, providing one or moreof the places corresponding to the location for presentation to theuser.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising by a computingdevice, ranking the one or more places corresponding to the location. 7.The method of claim 6, wherein ranking the one or more places comprisingranking the one or more places based at least in part on a check-inhistory for the user.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein ranking the oneor more places comprising ranking the one or more places based at leastin part on a time of day.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein ranking theone or more places comprising ranking the one or more places based atleast in part on a velocity of the user.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the one or more places corresponding to the location compriseone or more places corresponding to the location and the velocity of theuser.
 11. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage mediaembodying software that is operable when executed to: automaticallydetermine, in response to a determination that a user is generatingsocial-network content for display on the social network andcontemporaneous with the user's generation of the social-networkcontent, a current location of the user, the social network comprising aplurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, atleast one node corresponding to the user; send, automatically andwithout requiring further user input and before the social-networkcontent is posted to the social network, the current location to anexternal server computing device; receive from the server anidentification of one or more places corresponding to the currentlocation; and present at least one of the places to the user inassociation with the user-generated content.
 12. A system comprising:one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the processorscomprising instructions executable by the processors, the processorsbeing operable when executing the instructions to: automaticallydetermine, in response to a determination that a user is generatingsocial-network content for display on the social network andcontemporaneous with the user's generation of the social-networkcontent, a current location of the user, the social network comprising aplurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, atleast one node corresponding to the user; send, automatically andwithout requiring further user input and before the social-networkcontent is posted to the social network, the current location to anexternal server computing device; receive from the server anidentification of one or more places corresponding to the currentlocation; and present at least one of the places to the user inassociation with the user-generated content.
 13. The method of claim 1,further comprising: analyzing, by a computing device, the social-networkcontent; determining, by a computing device, that the social-networkcontent references one or more of: a location; a place; or an event; andautomatically determining the location of the user.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the content refers to an activity or an event; anddetermining the current location of the user comprising determining thelocation of the activity or the event.
 15. The method of claim 1,further comprising: accessing a check-in history of the user;determining a similarity between the content and at least one check-inin the check-in history; and automatically determining, in response to adetermination that a user is generating social-network content fordisplay on the social network and that a similarity between the contentand the at least one check-in in the check-in history exists, thecurrent location of the user.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein thecontent identifies another user of the social network; and determining asimilarity between the content and at least one check-in in the check-inhistory comprises determining that the other user is associated with atleast one check in the check-in history.
 17. The method of claim 15,wherein the content identifies a place; and determining a similaritybetween the content and at least one check-in in the check-in historycomprises determining that the user has previously checked in to theplace.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the content identifies a typeof place; and determining a similarity between the content and at leastone check-in in the check-in history comprises determining that the userhas previously checked in to that type of place.
 19. The method of claim15, wherein determining a similarity between the content and at leastone check-in in the check-in history comprises determining a number ofthe user's previous check-ins that are relevant to the content.